Home repossessions are up by 50 per cent already this year, grim figures showed yesterday.

Some 12,800 householders lost their properties in the first three months of the year - up from 8,500 a year ago.

And rising joblessness has seen 123,500 fall up to six months behind with mortgage payments, up nearly 60 per cent in a year. Another 90,900 homeowners are between six and 12 months in arrears and 50,700 more than 12 months behind - 265,000 in total.

But there was some good news as the Council of Mortgage Lenders said members were showing more leniency to struggling homeowners, meaning it would revise downwards its original forecast of 75,000 repossessions this year. CML chief Michael Coogan said:"Lenders genuinely want to help borrowers."

However, some campaigners say banks are still too quick to boot out mortgage payers who default - despite new Government schemes to help struggling homeowners.

They include making it harder to get repossession orders and allowing the unemployed to defer part of their repayments. Sam Younger, of housing charity Shelter, said: "These figures paint a very depressing picture of homeowners struggling to keep up with repayments.

"There have been moves to help struggling homeowners but some lenders are still not doing everything they can."

Lib Dem housing spokeswoman Sarah Teather added: "The number of families being repossessed is still rising. Ministers should be ashamed that only one family has been helped by their scheme."